Climate Change & The EnvironmentDiscuss Coral reef species may adjust to climate change at the General Discussion; Coral reef species may adjust to climate change
MANY of the world's coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, could ...

MANY of the world's coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, could survive the coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, a study has found.

While past research had predicted large-scale destruction from global warming was inevitable, recent studies have shown some species were more capable of adapting than others.

But the capacity for these corals to adjust could be greatly reduced by human activities such as over-fishing, pollution and habitat destruction.

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As part of the study, published in the journal Science, scientists reviewed the most recent research on the effect of climate change on coral reefs, as well as evidence from the fossil record.

A marine biologist and study leader, John Pandolfi, said the response to climate change varied dramatically between regions.

''We can't say everywhere is doomed in two decades because CO2 is this level and pH is that level; it's just not that black and white,'' said Professor Pandolfi, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.

''Our expectation is that some regions are less likely to completely collapse in the next few decades than others.''

A marine biologist and co-author of the study, Sean Connolly, also from the centre, said there was good evidence to show that past global warming and ocean acidification had had devastating impacts on coral reefs.

There was also evidence that marine species coped differently to ocean warming and coral bleaching.

He warned that the findings did not mean coral reefs were out of danger.

"There is no doubt that unchecked global warming would have a devastating affect on the world’s reefs," he said.

"If we do nothing, by later this century then all bets are off," Professor Connolly said.

now if we can just get marine life to adapt to the oil and chemicals...

Actually, many kinds of oil are consumed readily by marine bacteria, and the sea is all chemicals.

#1 I knew you would respond first. so I'll finish patting myself on the back.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. ................

And to respond to your post : my neighbor sprays his yard for dandelions-it make me sneeze but I realize there are chemicals in his yard already so I guess I have nothing to worry about...

Warming sea temperatures still bleaching Australia’s Great Barrier Reef...Great Barrier Reef experiences second year of bleachingSat, Mar 11, 2017 - Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing an unprecedented second straight year of mass coral bleaching, scientists said yesterday, warning many species would struggle to fully recover. The 2,300km reef last year suffered its most severe bleaching on record due to warming sea temperatures in March and April.

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Bleaching is once again occurring, the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said after an aerial survey off Australia’s eastern coast on Thursday. “Regrettably, the temperatures have been high on the Great Barrier Reef this summer as well, and unfortunately [we] are here to confirm ... a mass coral bleaching event for the second consecutive year,” agency reef recovery director David Wachenfeld said in a video on Facebook. “And importantly, this is the first time we’ve ever seen the Great Barrier Reef bleached two years in sequence. We’ve seen heat stress build since December.” The agency said more bleaching was being observed in the central part of the reef, which last year escaped widespread severe bleaching.

Last year’s bleaching was more severe in the northern areas of the biodiverse site. The back-to-back occurrence of widespread bleaching also meant there was insufficient time for corals to fully recover, the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s Neal Cantin said. “We are seeing a decrease in the stress tolerance of these corals,” Cantin added in a statement. “This is the first time the Great Barrier Reef has not had a few years between bleaching events to recover.” “Many coral species appear to be more susceptible to bleaching after more than 12 months of sustained above-average ocean temperatures,” he added.

A handout photograph made available by WWF-Australia yesterday shows the Great Barrier Reef experiencing mass coral bleaching for the second year in a row near Cairns, Australia

Bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, such as warmer sea temperatures, cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, draining them of their color. Corals can recover if the water temperature drops and the algae are able to recolonize them. However, researchers in January said coral reefs that survive rapid bleaching fueled by global warming would remain deeply damaged with little prospect of full recovery. The Great Barrier Reef escaped with minor damage after two other bleaching events in 1998 and 2002.

Conservation group WWF-Australia yesterday said that the latest bleaching increased the urgency of tackling climate change in Australia, one of the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters. “I did not anticipate back-to-back bleaching this decade,” WWF-Australia oceans division head Richard Leck said. “Scientists warned that without sufficient emissions reductions we could expect annual mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef by 2050. Consecutive bleaching events have arrived 30 years early.”

Actually, many kinds of oil are consumed readily by marine bacteria, and the sea is all chemicals.

Parts of crude oil are consumed by certain marine bacteria over time but that doesn't eliminate the ecological damage from crude oil spills.

Yes, the ocean does reflect a mixture of chemicals that lifeforms have evolved to flourish in but with changes to the ocean environment comes dangers.

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A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them.

“We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event,” said Douglas J. McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an author of the new research, which was published on Thursday in the journal Science.

__________________"I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it's dirty on the inside." Donald Trump

"I always had a rule, if the White House is dirty on the inside, it's dirty on the outside." ShivaTD

Based upon the corruption, brutality, inhumanity, immorality, dishonesty, and incompetence of the Trump administration the White House is the dirtiest house in America and there's no known cleanser that with remove the stains of the Trump Administration.

Ocean chemical makeup, depth, temperature, surface area, have changed dozens of times over the past millions of years. So this unprecedented disaster is hardly unprecedented.

What really worries these settled science scientists is that the grant money might well dry up. That would be a disaster.

Mankind could well become extinct. We are a relatively new species, but newer species are on the threatened or endangered list. Homo Sapiens, however have shown a propensity for adaption. Overtaking and outlasting many older species to become the most widely distributed species ever. I suspect we'll be here a while.

Coral reefs dying off...Scientists race to prevent wipeout of world's coral reefsMar 12, 2017 - There were startling colors here just a year ago, a dazzling array of life beneath the waves. Now this Maldivian reef is dead, killed by the stress of rising ocean temperatures. What's left is a haunting expanse of gray, a scene repeated in reefs across the globe in what has fast become a full-blown ecological catastrophe.

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The world has lost roughly half its coral reefs in the last 30 years. Scientists are now scrambling to ensure that at least a fraction of these unique ecosystems survives beyond the next three decades. The health of the planet depends on it: Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species, as well as half a billion people around the world. "This isn't something that's going to happen 100 years from now. We're losing them right now," said marine biologist Julia Baum of Canada's University of Victoria. "We're losing them really quickly, much more quickly than I think any of us ever could have imagined."

Even if the world could halt global warming now, scientists still expect that more than 90 percent of corals will die by 2050. Without drastic intervention, we risk losing them all.
"To lose coral reefs is to fundamentally undermine the health of a very large proportion of the human race," said Ruth Gates, director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. Coral reefs produce some of the oxygen we breathe. Often described as underwater rainforests, they populate a tiny fraction of the ocean but provide habitats for one in four marine species. Reefs also form crucial barriers protecting coastlines from the full force of storms.

They provide billions of dollars in revenue from tourism, fishing and other commerce, and are used in medical research for cures to diseases including cancer, arthritis and bacterial or viral infections. "Whether you're living in North America or Europe or Australia, you should be concerned," said biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at Australia's University of Queensland. "This is not just some distant dive destination, a holiday destination. This is the fabric of the ecosystem that supports us."

And that fabric is being torn apart. "You couldn't be more dumb ... to erode the very thing that life depends on — the ecosystem — and hope that you'll get away with it," Hoegh-Guldberg said. Corals are invertebrates, living mostly in tropical waters. They secrete calcium carbonate to build protective skeletons that grow and take on impressive colors, thanks to a symbiotic relationship with algae that live in their tissues and provide them with energy.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef can be saved only if urgent steps are taken to reduce global warming, new research has warned. Attempting to stop coral bleaching through any other method will not be sufficient, according to scientists. The research, published in the journal Nature, said bleaching events should no longer be studied individually, but as threats to the reef's survival.

Severe coral bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef

The bleaching - or loss of algae - in 2016 was the worst on record. "Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef," said co-author Prof Morgan Pratchett, from Queensland's James Cook University. "It all comes down to what the governments in Australia and around the world do in terms of mitigating further rises in temperatures."

Mass coral bleaching

* Coral bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures resulting from two natural warm currents.
* It is exacerbated by man-made climate change, as the oceans are absorbing about 93% of the increase in the Earth's heat.
* Bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae known as zooxanthellae that give them colour.
* If normal conditions return, the corals can recover, but it can take decades, and if the stress continues the corals can die.

Lead author Prof Terry Hughes warned bleaching events had become "the new normal". Last week, he said an aerial survey had shown evidence of mass bleaching in consecutive summers for the first time. The scale of the damage will be examined in the next three weeks by the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, a collaboration of scientists and reef managers.

Prof Pratchett said he remained optimistic the reef could recover, but the "window of opportunity" to curb emissions was closing. "It's the number one thing we need to think about now to save the reef," he told the BBC. Improving fishing practices or water quality would not be enough, he said. he reef - a vast collection of thousands of smaller coral reefs stretching from the northern tip of Queensland to the state's southern city of Bundaberg - was given World Heritage status in 1981. The UN says it is the "most biodiverse" of all the World Heritage sites, and of "enormous scientific and intrinsic importance".

Granny says, "Dat's right - it's the end times...Scientists Issue Climate Change Alert for Australia's Great Barrier ReefMarch 18, 2017 — New research warns that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef can be saved only if urgent steps are taken to tackle climate change. The study, published in the journal Nature, says parts of the world’s largest coral system will never fully recover from repeated bleaching, caused by spikes in the water temperature.

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The Great Barrier Reef faces localized threats, such as the run-off of pesticides from farms and overfishing, but scientists believe its future depends on immediate efforts to reduce global warming.

Worst bleaching on record

They say last year’s bleaching of large parts of the reef was the worst on record. There’s evidence that a similar event is occurring this year. Corals begin to starve once they bleach, the main cause of which is heat stress resulting from high sea temperatures. The world heritage body, UNESCO, has threatened to put the Great Barrier Reef on its in danger list because of mounting concerns over its health.

Dried coral lies on a beach as the sun sets on Lady Elliot Island, 80 kilometers northeast of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia

In response, Australia’s Queensland state government released a discussion paper to look at ways to improve water quality on the reef, which is contaminated by fertilizers and pesticides from farms near the coast. Nick Casule from the environment group Greenpeace says while localized threats must be addressed, so must the broader issue of climate change.

'Warming killing the reef'

“Poor water quality is a huge threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef,” Casule said. “There is no denying that, and that comes from activities like agriculture and agricultural run-off into the reef. It also comes from activities like the industrial ports that are all up and down the Queensland coastline, but they can’t be viewed in isolation. At the core of that has to be the recognition that global warming is what is killing the reef.”

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeast coast. It is home to a wondrous array of wildlife, including more than 130 species of sharks, 500 types of worms and 1,600 varieties of fish. The reef pumps more than $4 billion into the Australian economy and employs 63,000 people mostly in the tourism industry, although some travel groups believe the damage inflicted on the coral system has been exaggerated, which has, in turn, seen many travelers from Europe and the United States cancel their trips.